I have been looking forward to starting my first Social Work placement since last year but somehow things were not organised as well as I thought, communication breakdown was a factor also. This resulted in me starting placement a day later than my peers.
Knowing I had started placement a day later than my peers made me feel rather anxious and unprepared. I felt as if I was missing out on something as I was posts over social networking about how enjoyable their days had been. I even felt that I needed to make up excuses as to why I was not on placement. Well, I did not need any excuses, there were many facts as to why I did not get to start placement on time. When calling my placement co-ordinator I felt a bit fearful that I may be looked at as unprofessional or that they may have judged my person from my actions, but not only them but also the agency supervisor. All these feelings and thoughts were running through my thoughts which made me even more anxious. Not being able to contact my agency supervisor also added to the stress and I did not know whether to just show up to the agency and risk being seen as unprofessional or continue to leave messages and be seen as nagging.
Looking back on the situation I realised that maybe it was not as bad as I thought because on one hand I may have not been on placement, but on the other hand I had that extra day to get myself prepared and by using the information that my peers had exchanged about their first days on placement actually made me feel less anxious, more excited, more prepared and more confident. Once I did meet with the agency supervisor I felt a lot better knowing that they are rather relaxed which also allowed me to be as well.
Target (2003) states that, starting placement is both nerve racking and exciting at the same time and that they suggest that being prepared can